Film Review 'Inside I'm Dancing' directed by Damien O'Donnell

James McAvoy is a Scottish actor with an international appeal and broad range. No one else would have stepped into the shoes of Sir Patrick Stewart for X-Men: First Class other than him. McAvoy may seem like he is boyishly charming but he has an incredible depth and agility that is seen in every role. The 2004 Irish film Inside I’m Dancing was a touching display of McAvoy’s capacity as a disabled man in an institution. His character Rory O’Shea is a man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who changes the hopes of those around him.

Rory meet a fellow patient named Michael at the Carrigmore Residential Home who suffers from cerebral palsy. Between his displays of profanity and inappropriate antics, Rory inspires Michael to live instead of exist. When they form a friendship, the two men plot an escape during a day trip to Dublin. Once out in the world the two men struggle to find a place and must deal with the realities of being dependant on the state. Things only get stranger when Michael’s social awkwardness and Rory’s anti-social tendencies come out after meeting a girl at the grocery store named Siobhan.

This was a character that was very different from the James McAvoy most people have seen since his appearances in The Last King of Scotland and Becoming Jane. McAvoy excels in period dramas but his acting in modern and thought provoking films are worthy of exploration. McAvoy gives us a thoroughly disturbed and tortured young man at odds with the world that only accepts “normal” people. While we can empathize with Rory, McAvoy makes its impossible to excuse his behavior with sympathy. Life in Britain as a developmentally challenged person is not as it is in America. McAvoy gives us this snapshot of the socialist approach to handling people with disabilities. There is not a happy or sad ending for his character but a realistic one which still gives us some hope for Rory.